| Show MRS BONANZA MACKEY A History of Her Early Life Told Tjy One AVho Knew Her 1e II always makes me so angry thaI tha-I can scarcely contain myself when I read such paragraphs as the Mrs John Mackey was once a washerwoman washer-woman Gossips and newspaper men who do not knoW ¼ and perhaps do no t even care Injustice to a most wor thy woman when they make such careless care-less use Qf her name 1 There ha been stopping at the Gibson son for the past few days a fine looking look-ing gentleman turned 50 with ruddy face as though well used to open weather making a lively contrast with his gray hair and mustache He will interest one more In two minutes than ordinary men can in a whole hour Just let him pull one of those gold nuggets nug-gets from his capacious pockets or those chunks of gold imbedded in quartz as they were found in the hills of Nevada and then listen to him tell of the various ways of finding gold whether in nuggets in sand In the crushing of the rockribbed quartz and you will look and look and listen and listen in utter captivation Captain Jay G Kelley mining engineer en-gineer and expert of Denver is the man and one day in looking at some of his peculiar and valuable specimens and listening to his fascinating ex plajnaltions he happened to mention something about the JVIackeys and in duiry elicited the fact that he had known them all his life The al lfe conver ration turned upon this family and being a miner Captain Kelley was asked if he knew them when they werent as rich as they are now I have known Mrs Mackey about all my life Know her as well as I do my own sister We were boy and girl in the same town and it so happened that when the Mackeys lived in Virginia Vir-ginia City I lived there I was not because they were there but it so came about in my business that we lived in the same place and being interested in-terested in the mines alike I had a good deal to do with them Their house i has always been open to me i The reporter was curipus to know of a certain matter that every once in awhile I a-while finds its way into print or gossip and asked Captain Kelley if it were true that Mrs Mackey had once been a washerwoman There was a flash in the captains eye as though incensed I and he was but his reply showed that it was not at the writer I am really glad you asked me that he replied I have never been I asked that by a newspaper man and i makes me so angry when I see such i paragraphs in the papers that I am glad to have the opportunity to correct r cor-rect i I wouldnt do it if I had not been asked and Mrs Mackey though I very sensitive to i would never make j a public correction of it She is the i daughter of Colonel Daniel E Hungerford who was a cap I tain in the Mexican war colonel of the Fifth Nevada infantry and in command com-mand of volunteers in the Piute war in 1860 He was a soldier every inch of him and I recall what a magnificent i magnifi-cent appearance he presented when he came out to receive the troops on dress parade The family was always in 1 good circumstances and there was no occosion for Mrs Mackey as a girl to I do washing for a livelihood Not that there was any disgrace attached to the i atached livelihood of a washerwoman but in I i regard to Mrs Mackey it isnt true I I and i often appears in a slurring way I j I suppose to make a vivid a contrast as possible with her present life I Her mother was a French woman and so the French tongue came to her naturally Then her education was I carefully attended to She carefuly was educated I edu-cated at a sisters school a convent The Hungerfords lived in Forest City I Cal and I was working in the Live I Yankee mine pushing cars out of thp mine I was about sixteen or seven j I teen then and I believe she was about J fourteen She is about fortynine now j Then she was married to Dr Bryant I and they lived In Virginia City Min ing interests took me to Virginia 1In1 I was a guest at the Bryant home many a time Dr Bryant died in Virginia Vir-ginia City in 1863 or 1864 I I remember very well when she married Mr Mackey who was then a poor man a mining superintendent I I But they always had enoughto live on and in comparative comfort and comparatve never I as Mrs Mackey did 1rs 1ackey she do washing or have to earn money She may have I done her own washing as many a good wife has done and does But I have known them both so long and so 1 well that I naturally resent wrong i and careless I statements They serve no purpose and as J said do an in justice to a noble woman She is an I earnest honest woman a good kind woman has a great big heart and all of her charitable deeds will never be known though I know she would not thank me for even referring to them |
